Was invited to become a member of The International Society of Typographic Designers.

Left Art School forever and moved back to my beloved London (see you later, suckers).

Road tripped from Vancouver to Seattle to Portland to San Francisco.

Lived for a bit in Stockholm, had the time of my life, spent tons of money, hung out with the Snask boys and then made two incredible new friends by the way of Emmelie Quartin and Klara Modighl. Also got to spend time with my dear Sofie Lundqvist (now working at Amore)

Went to Berlin with my friends. Stayed in a beautiful flat, partied a lot, and had my mind absolutely blown by the Judische Museum and Bauhaus Archiv.

Worked for a few weeks in Sunny Brighton at Red Design.

Hooked up with my loving new family at Campbell Hay.

Graduated from University.

Went to the grove and saw the Arsenal slaughter Chelsea 3 - 1.

Snow.

Drank beer.

Things that shouldn't have happened:

Financial crisis and graduate oversaturation meant that even getting a reply to an email from a potential employer was/is next to impossible.

Friday, 10 December 2010

Friday, 15 October 2010

Yes! Here it is! The predictable "sorry ive not posted anything in ages wah wah wah" post that inevitably rears its ugly head on blogs across the interweb every couple of weeks. The most common excuse ("I'VE BEEN BUSY") - is the one that I will pluck for this time around not least because it is largely true. I am currently with a studio in shoreditch and am absolutely head over heels with it. It is a fun place, I work with incredible, hilarious people and I get to do great jobs. What more can i ask for? Oh yeah thats right nothing.

Hopefully I will have some new work to show soon from gig posters to wedding dresses to alpine retreats, as well as a new portfolio (printed and online) and an impending move to tumblr which should allow my blogging to become more fluid and frequent. In the mean time, sample the chilled delights of Small Black's new tune "photojournalist". They're EP from a little while back was enjoyable but this is much slicker.

Tuesday, 28 September 2010

Monday, 13 September 2010

Was invited by glittering acoustic Liverpudlians The Sand Band (good name for a band) to do the poster for their record release party. I had previously done a poster for Holy Are You with them on the bill aaaaages ago, and I guess they remembered it. The cherry on the cake is that they're actually really quite good — and great to listen to late at night when you're designing posters by lamp light. As is the bright eyed Jack Joseph, gently strumming on his acoustic guitar, who is one of the support acts for the night (and coincidentally, will be playing much closer to home in Finsbury Park the week after next). Anyway if you're in Liverpool on the 16th of October get to The Static Gallery to treat your ears and get your mitts on a copy of their respective records.

Tuesday, 31 August 2010

For the past two weeks I have been road trippin' down the west coast of North America, starting in Vancouver, Canada (where my brother lives) and taking in the sights of Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon, Crescent City, California, San Jose, Big Sur, San Luis Obispo and finally rounding things up in San Francisco. I don't think i've ever had so much fun solidly for two weeks in my entire life before. Neither have I seen so many great things, met so many cool people, eaten so many insane meals, drank so many delicious beers and had so many great conversations. I also got to get a bit over excited when returning to Amoeba Music in San Francisco, my favourite record shop in the whole world (conicendentally, it's also the best. Weird huh?). Jackpot Records in Portland also impressed. I also saw trees so large they struck awe into my heart and made me feel like just a puny bug on the face of the planet, ate burritos the size of babies, chilled on epic californian coast lines, stayed in the greatest hotel I have ever stayed in (the Madonna Inn, search it in google images. There is not a trace of irony about this place, and that is why it is so perfect), saw the San Franciso Giants win at the baseball, learnt how beer is made, ate pancakes for breakfast, saw Terry Richardson in the worlds biggest book shop, kept Portland weird, and loved every single damn minute of it.

My brother, who is a bit of a hippie, has got the right idea: live your life right now and enjoy every single moment. Don't fret the future, don't sweat all the small stuff and always have an adventure. That sounds like good advice to me.

In other news I will be with the good people of CampbellHay for the next three months. Rarely do you meet such a fine group of young ladies and gents, including two frenchmen.

Thursday, 22 July 2010

Sunday, 18 July 2010

I had another opportunity to work with the guys and girls of The Brickyard this week. I was commissioned for the poster for none other than The Damned. I have loved their (first) album "Damned Damned Damned" for a long time. Did you know that The Damned are the first uk punk band to ever release an album ("Damned Damned Damned", in 1977), a single ("Neat Neat Neat" b/w "New Rose", I believe, please correct me if I am wrong), and to tour America ("USA, USA, USA"). True story. Good work, The Damned! I once had to decide whether or not to buy an original copy of the "Damned Damned Damned" LP or "Inflammable Material" by Stiff Little Fingers. I chose Stiff Little Fingers. Needless to say, it was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever been forced to make.

After spending quite some time photoshopping in the shadows on the woman's dress and the bow on her chest I am rather craving doing something clean and typographic soon. I feel like i've been cheating on my love affair with Helvetica for a while now.

Anyway if you are in Carlisle around the 11th of August it's a definite must that you should shell out the £18 to catch some classic punk tunes and spooky vibes with The Damned. Watch this if you don't believe me:

Saturday, 17 July 2010

Polish graphic designer and art director Roman Cieslewicz (b.1930-d.1996) managed to achieve almost everything visually I have ever tried to do, some 20 years before I was even born.

The work of many design icons/iconoclasts (and almost every single gig poster ever made) - from Brody to Victore to Reid to Kruger to Chantry - probably would not even exist without Cieslewicz having paved the way for proto-postmodern design during the mid 50s and 60s. By surrounding himself with artists (often surrealists) yet remaining grounded in graphics and dedicated to the beauty of print, Cieslewicz was able to take diverse influences and put them through his own visual blender, creating design for cultural industries and institutions that was keen to shake cages and ruffle feathers. However, what separates Cieslewicz from any of the (phenomenal) designers and art directors mentioned above is his timing. Brody, Victore, Reid, Kruger and Chantry are products of postmodernism: spinning punk 7"s or kicking against consumerism to carve out their art, Cieslewicz generated design that did these things before they were even thought of.

You can see the Roman Cieslewicz exhibition at the Royal College of Art until the 7th of August. It's free, so you would have to be literally insane not to go!

Wednesday, 7 July 2010

Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Honda make great cars. Seriously, my mum drives a Jazz, and I can tell you as a passenger I have never before had such a comfortable experience. Honda also make great adverts. Above is the new one for the CR-Z Hybrid and it might just be my favourite yet. Although obviously its not as good as the one where all the stuff happens (aka the best ad of all time).

Wednesday, 9 June 2010

Continuing my collaboration with the psychedelic wild boys of Holy Are You I have created the new poster for the Elephant Stone and The Lucid Dream show they're putting on at The Source Arts Cafe on the 3rd of July, which will no doubt be a foot stomping night of all things psychedelic and soul. Chris usually supplies me with an image that he wants to use on the poster, and this time it was of Mr George Harrison and Mr Ravi Shankar.

Saturday, 5 June 2010

Wednesday, 2 June 2010

I'm sorry I've not posted anything, either writing or images, properly for quite a long time now. This also includes a total neglect to make any posts whilst during my time at the fantastic Red in Brighton. University is nearly finished and what with all the different things I have to take care of and the mounting pressures of reality, I've been finding it hard to find time, and in some cases, the motivation to write any posts of significance, and for that, i apologise. To make it up to you, here is a poster I whipped up for a deerhunter show. As of NOW, I promise more posts and more work, all the time! Including my new portfolio site, photos from our upcoming exhibition, a few live briefs, and no doubt tons of music.

Saturday, 8 May 2010

As every member of BA (Hons) Graphic Design Yr3 classes up and down the country the end is very much in sight. Within 2 weeks the ladies and gentlemen in my class will be handing in all of their final projects and then cracking open some drinks in celebration. We can't spend all our time now patting each other on the back and telling everyone we love them and we're going to miss them. Soon the real world will be knocking on the door and in order to stop my real world experience not being one of "living on the streets" I have decided to sell some of my collection of design, illustration, art and photography books. There is tons of really great stuff here and I 100% gaurantee i am not trying to get rid of any books just because they suck, but purely because I feel that there are others who will appreciate them a lot more than I do.

Hello, Hola, Bonjour, Hej, こんにちは

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